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Entertainment

Neil Postman wrote a book titled "Entertaining Ourselves to Death" in which he described the dangers of passivity when it comes to our use of entertainment. When we watch or listen to entertainment we need to always be aware that there is a message (a worldview) that is being relayed within the entertainment. If we are not discerning about what we watch or listen to we can subconsciously adopt the values being presented by the creator of that entertainment. Their values may very well become our values.

A benefit of studying worldviews is that we become more discerning about how ideas are interwoven into entertainment. Yet, most people are unaware of how their thinking is being manipulated by the individual or group that originated the entertainment. The same is true of news shows and educational presentations. The result is that large numbers of people can be manipulated to adopt values that they really never would have had they knew that they were being manipulated to accept them.

The lesson here is that we should not be passive when exposing ourselves to entertainment. Rarely will entertainment be neutral. Who ever originates the entertainment has a reason for making it. We need to be aware that this is part of the entertainment culture and not approach our entertainment with a passive attitude. The following video clip by John Stonestreet provides a good overview of how the process works.